


domestication

by ronanlynchisneversleepingagain



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-06-15
Packaged: 2018-07-15 07:13:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7212982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ronanlynchisneversleepingagain/pseuds/ronanlynchisneversleepingagain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adam comes over to the Barns one summer night after work and helps Ronan with chores. Then, realizing that Ronan has let Opal run wild, Adam decides the poor little urchin needs a bath.</p>
<p>This is pure fluff of Adam and Ronan being idiots with each other, you're welcome. Requested by @askybison on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	domestication

**Author's Note:**

> @askybison asked: Oh god if you’re kinda accepting prompts then how about Ronan and Adam trying to be domestic dorks at the barns. Adam coming after school or in the weekend and helps Ronan bathe the cattle/animals but somehow end up in a water fight because they are hopeless teenagers who like to do silly things sometimes just because.
> 
> i did take some liberties because i couldn’t think of why they would want to bathe a cow, so they bathe opal (kinda) instead. (also, i am a complete failure at writing short, drabble-length fics, so here is this 2,000+ response to your simple request. i hope you don’t mind.)

    Adam had never been around that many animals before Ronan introduced him to the Barns. There had been a small, scared dog at the trailer and they had shared a fence line with a pasture that sometimes held a horse or two, but Adam had never really taken notice. Now, though, his heart felt full of the creatures at the Barns, both real and dreamt.

    The cows that Niall Lynch had dreamt into life so many years ago still slumbered, but the other herd was slowly growing and when Adam saw it, he was always glad that the Barns was so secluded. It would be hard to explain some of Ronan’s creations – beautiful and strange and so clearly dream things and not real animals, although they breathed and ate just the same.

    It was the thick of the summer and the heat was heavy on Adam’s shoulders as he walked out to the far stables where he knew he would find Ronan. He leaned in the open door of the barn while his eyes adjusted to the dim light inside. The daylight was beginning to drain out of the sky behind him, but it was still darker inside the unlit barn. Ronan, clad only in a loose pair of jeans and muck boots, was there with a bucket of feed swinging by his side. He was filling a trough for some of the sheep in the last pen.

    “You should have dreamt them so they didn’t need food,” Adam said, announcing himself to Ronan who hadn’t yet noticed him. “Seems like it would have saved you a lot of time.”

    Ronan stopped what he doing and looked back to see Adam in the door.

    “What’s the fun in that?” Ronan asked. His mouth curved in such a wicked way that Adam took a self-conscious moment to admire it. This – the ability to openly admire Ronan – was still new to him and sometimes Adam had to remind himself that Ronan was a thing he was allowed to have. Ronan turned back to the sheep and emptied the last of his feed bucket in the trough before coming over to where Adam stood.

    Ronan stuffed his hands in his pockets and his head dipped low so his eyes were shaded from Adam’s own. They were still figuring out how to be around each other now and it was the beginning of each new moment that was the hardest. Adam cleared his throat and forced himself to take a step a little closer to Ronan, bumping his shoulder gently against the other boy’s.

    “Can I help you with anything?” Adam asked.

    Ronan met his eyes and shrugged.

    “If you want,” he said. It was as much an invitation as Adam would get that night. Ronan slid the door of the barn closed and led the way out to one of the others, where some of the cows were. Adam picked up a bucket and filled it in the same way that he had seen Ronan do dozens of times and they worked in silence as they filled each trough in the barn with feed. When they were finished, Adam put aside his bucket and sat on one of the bales of hay stacked in the corner of the barn. Ronan joined him after a minute.

    “Where’s Opal?” Adam asked, both for something to say and because it had just occurred to him that the little urchin of a girl had not yet made an appearance that night, which was strange. Ronan exhaled loudly and lay back on the hay bale, extending his arms beyond his head.

    “Probably eating one of the barn doors,” Ronan said. He didn’t sound concerned. Adam was having a hard time trying to remember why he’d asked anyway, because at the moment all he could think about was Ronan Lynch, shirtless and beautiful, sitting next to him in a barn that was empty except for a few cows.

    “Ronan,” Adam said. He rubbed the back of his head, trying to hang onto a clear thought. The other boy’s fingers came up to lazily trace the outline of Adam’s knuckles and Adam looked back to Ronan to find his eyes dark and focused. Adam turned his hand over and Ronan continued to run his fingers over it, tracing the grooves of the palm of Adam’s hand, as though he were memorizing the way it felt. Every hour that he spent at the Barns with Ronan like this, Adam felt like he was a little closer to _knowing_ , although he wasn’t sure if he would ever completely unravel the mysteries of Ronan Lynch.

    The door of the barn creaked open and Ronan’s eyes darted away, his fingers stopping as his attention was captured by the small figure who had just danced around the heavy sliding door to come inside. Adam felt robbed of a moment he hadn’t finished cataloging to parse later.

    “What?” Ronan asked flatly. Adam shot him a look and it was clear from Ronan’s frown that he felt a little resentful towards Opal just then as well. Opal trotted towards them, twigs in her hair and dirt on her face, more creature than girl. She had a small field mouse in her hands and she held it out to Adam for inspection. He took it from her, stroking the tiny animal’s soft fur curiously. Ronan sat up beside him and pet the small mouse with the knuckle of his finger gently. Adam smiled at him, charmed and painfully aware that he was being charmed all at the same time.

    Opal sidled closer and lay her head on Adam’s arm. Her hair, free of the skull cap that usually tamed it, was greasy and filled with all manner of dirt. Adam handed the field mouse over to Ronan, who cupped it to his chest without comment, and turned to inspect Opal more closely. Her fingernails were long and ragged, with dirt crescents under each. He doubted seriously that Ronan had ever thought to force her to bathe - he preferred his creatures wild. Adam thought first of the bathtub in the house, but then the thought of wrangling Opal up the stairs and into the porcelain basin seemed more difficult than strictly necessary.

    “Come on,” Adam said to Opal, grabbing her hand and pulling her with him back through the open door of the barn. There was a hose curled like a snake outside the door and Adam stationed the girl next to it. She looked up at him stoically and then looked to the hose with a flicker of distrust. “You’ll feel better after,” Adam promised, although he wasn’t sure it was quite true.

    Opal looked doubtful, either way. Ronan appeared then, still holding the mouse against his chest, and ducked out through the door to settle himself in the grass.

    “Kerah?” Opal asked, as if hoping he might stop Adam. Ronan shrugged at her as Adam turned the spigot on, testing the water pressure and temperature.

    “How about just your hair?” Adam bargained with the small girl. Opal tugged at the blonde nest on her head and looked again to Ronan, but clearly didn’t find what she was looking for. She looked back to Adam dolefully and nodded. “Alright, you’re going to lean over like this.”

    Adam demonstrated and shook his hair out. She laughed, a strange caw of a laugh that belonged to a raven more than a girl. Adam smiled at her strangeness and felt the warm sensation that he was beginning to identify as love grow inside of him. He let the water from the hose run over his fingers to ensure it wouldn’t shock her from the cold. Opal leaned over and shook her hair out in an exaggerated imitation of him and stood patiently with her hair hanging in the summer breeze. Ronan’s eyes snagged Adam’s over her back and Adam felt momentarily paralyzed by their intensity. He looked back to the hose in his hands, feeling the slight blush that had bloomed on the back of his neck and face.

     Opal screeched at the first touch of water on her head and shook her hair under the stream so it splattered on Adam and Ronan both.

     “Hey!” Ronan protested. “Neither of us need baths.”

      Adam cast an eye over Ronan’s dirty jeans and privately thought otherwise, but turned back to Opal’s hair. He gently picked twigs out of it while the water worked at the dirt, rinsing it slowly from the small girl’s head. Adam untangled Opal’s hair with his free hand as best he could. Ronan, finally stirring himself, let the small field mouse back onto the grass where it scampered away almost immediately after sniffing the air to ascertain its freedom. He stood and joined Adam by Opal’s still bent head and took the hose from Adam, so Adam could more deftly sort through the girl’s hair. Finally, satisfied that Opal’s hair was thoroughly picked clean of dirt and twigs, Adam stepped back and allowed her to shake her head out.  Ronan shielded his face with a hand and cursed at Opal, using a thumb to spray direct the babbling water of the hose at her in a direct hit.

     “Kerah!” she cried, wounded and Adam laughed, despite himself.

    “Don’t think you’re safe, Parrish,” Ronan said and a moment later, before Adam could shield himself, the stream of water was directed at him, soaking his thin t-shirt. It felt wonderful in the still stifling heat and Adam let the water soak him thoroughly before tackling Ronan for control of the hose. They scuffled there in the ground, turning the hose on each other until the ground beneath them was nothing more than mud and trampled grass.

    Opal had deserted them, standing several lengths away, looking resentful whenever Adam caught sight of her. Ronan took any moment of inattention in Adam to pull him back to the ground and shove the water hose towards him. Adam tried to grab a hold of the other boy, but Ronan’s bare skin was slippery and impossible, giving him an advantage in the wrestle. Finally, Adam, exhausted and wet, collapsed in the mud beside Ronan. Ronan, seeing that he had won, lay down next to him, pointing the water hose into the air above them with his thumb, which created a small shower of rain around the two boys. Adam loved the simple magic of the moment.

    “Now, you definitely need a bath,” Adam observed. He turned to look at Ronan, laying next to him on the ground and the other boy was relaxed and happy, his mouth open to catch the falling water. Ronan set the hose aside and pulled himself onto one elbow to reach for the spigot and shut it off before collapsing back into the mud.

    Ronan’s head fell to the side so he could look at Adam and Adam looked back at him. Ronan moved slowly, as if he was still afraid that Adam might run away if he went too quickly, and closed the distance between them, kissing Adam with the same gentleness that he had used to stroke the field mouse earlier. Adam’s hand came up to pull Ronan’s face closer and Ronan shifted closer, pressing skin against skin. Adam’s shirt, still wet and clinging, felt suddenly ridiculous against his skin and Adam broke away from Ronan to tear it off over his head. Ronan inhaled so loudly that Adam was suddenly embarrassed.

     “Is this okay?” Adam asked. They had rarely ventured beyond hands held and lips kissed and this much bare, wet skin pressed against against one another felt decidedly like a line being crossed to Adam. Ronan was quiet, but he was taking in Adam’s bare chest, pale and freckled, as though it was a piece of art that he had just happened upon in a museum. Ronan visibly swallowed and his eyes darted off to the side before coming back to Adam’s, bright blue and soft.

     “Is it okay with you?” Ronan asked, his gaze unwavering. Adam took Ronan’s hand and tugged him a little closer.

     “Yes,” Adam said, his voice almost a whisper. Ronan kissed him, harder this time and Adam’s skin sang at the sudden, devastating amount of skin contact between them. Yes, they were definitely crossing a line and he was glad of it.

      Later, after they had both showered the mud off and they were comfortably installed back at the house, Adam took a comb through Opal’s hair while Ronan watched. Then, Ronan banged around in the kitchen while Adam finished with Opal and released her back to her own devices. He joined Ronan in the kitchen to find a passable version of dinner waiting for him. They ate in silence, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable one.

     “You could stay here, you know?” Ronan said. It was a conversation they had skirted the edges of before, but it still surprised Adam to hear it so directly. His face must have said so, because Ronan immediately continued, “I don’t mean...I just mean, you don’t have to stay at St. Agnes for the rest of the summer. You could save your money and stay here.”

      Ronan’s reasons for wanting Adam to stay at the Barns had nothing to do with money and Adam knew it. Ronan’s face was twisted in annoyance, as if his own words pained him and he wanted to take them back. Adam held them carefully in his mind and wondered at how they didn’t make him feel anything, except wanted.

     “I know what you meant,” he said. Ronan’s face smoothed a bit at that and Adam looked down at his empty plate. He thought of the small, spare room back at St. Agnes a little regretfully, because he knew what his answer would be. “I can’t stay here, though. I have stay in town for work.”

      Ronan nodded. He must have known the answer before he even asked, but it was a question that had begged to be asked anyways and Adam understood that.

      “What about just for tonight, then?” Ronan asked.

      “I can do that,” Adam agreed.

**Author's Note:**

> if you too would like to submit a fic request, my ask box on tumblr is open: ronanlynchisneversleepingagain.tumblr.com


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